


A Tale of Two Stars

by kingofgublerween



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 03:00:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30048891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingofgublerween/pseuds/kingofgublerween
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Intro

Hi everyone!  
So, this is officially my first full fanfiction, really hope you enjoy it!  
Before you start reading just wanted to say that each chapter is inspired by a song, i made a playlist so you can listen to them all (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0TzGvz8Ql4KMba2cVU8npz?si=4qaterxqQaOcjpkniUt87A)  
There also may or may not be foreshadowing in the lyrics of said songs, so check them out.  
Other than that, just enjoy and be sure to let me know what you think!


	2. coffee and tv

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so, give me coffee and tv, easily i've seen so much, i'm going blind and i'm brain-dead, virtually

The sound of your hello kitty alarm clock wakes you up from the nightmare you were having. It’s the same one you’ve had all week. Each night, you see yourself being late to your first day of your new job, saying something incoherent every time you open your mouth, and getting fired before lunchtime.

After checking your email and messages on your phone, making sure you have more than enough time to get ready, you make your way towards the bathroom.

“Alexa, play morning playlist”

The mix of Ottis Redding, One Direction and 2000 movie soundtracks accompanies you as you wash your face, shower, make some eggs on toast for breakfast, and get dressed for work.

You aren’t a particularly superstitious person, but you needed all the luck you could get for today, so you chose your lucky suit. Even if it didn’t give you luck, it gave you confidence, which was good enough.

You double checked everything in your bag, made sure the stove was off and that your keys were in your pocket, grabbed your coffee cup and went out the door.

Looking at your phone you noticed you were slightly short one time, but would be okay if you hurried your step a bit.

The subway was full of people on their way to work, and you really wished you had rented a car while waiting for yours to be shipped.

Making your way down the stairs you noticed your train was already there. You weren’t much of a runner, but you sprinted as fast as you could, praying it wouldn’t leave without you.

So fast, in fact, that you totally missed a woman carrying an insane number of books in her arms. You stood there, looking back and forth between the books on the floor and the train that was surely about to leave.

As if he could read your mind, a man kneeled down and helped the poor woman you had knocked down.

“Go, catch your train, i’m not in a hurry” said the man as he smiled at you. 

“Thank you!” you yelled as you ran towards the closing doors, making it through just in time. You looked back at the man, seeing he was looking back at you. You felt silly as heat rose to your cheeks. 

After a 40-minute trip and a lot of deep breaths, you stood in front of the FBI building, seeming much more intimidating than any time you had visited it before.

You hoped the elevator ride would give you a chance to calm down, but it did the opposite, especially after looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing a big coffee stain you hadn’t noticed before. And, of course, you didn’t have time to change into your spare in the go-bag.

So much for good luck.

With a soft ding, the elevator doors opened to a busy office space. People walking quickly left to right, up and down, some typing loudly at their desks.

“You seem lost, can I help you?” you turned to where the voice came from and saw what seemed like sunshine personified standing in front of you.

“Uh, yeah, I’m looking for Aaron Hotchner, the unit chief for the BAU?”

Her face lit up as if you had just given her a puppy.

“Oh my god you’re the new girl! I love you already, you’re going to be great. Hotch’s office is just up the stairs, second door from the left. I’m Penelope Garcia by the way, technical analyst and your new best friend.”

“Thank you, Penelope” you smiled at her and walked up the stairs. Some might find her intense, but you considered her to be comforting. At least she made you feel like you weren’t completely stupid for not knowing where to go.

You took a deep breath and knocked on the office door three times, before hearing the invitation to come in.

“Hello, I’m SSA y/n y/l/n, the new profiler working on your team.”

He stood up and shook his hand. ‘He has a firm grip’, you thought.

“Hello Y/L/N, please, sit down.” He quickly glanced at your chest and you became acutely aware of the stain you had forgotten about.

“Sorry about my shirt, someone bumped into me and I didn’t have time to change”.

“Don’t worry about it, you can do that after we talk. So, I read over your file, and the work you did in New York is very impressive, I can’t think of why counter-terrorism would want to transfer you”.

“Thank you, sir. I actually requested the transfer myself. Always found profiling more interesting than international politics anyway.”

He laughs, easing a bit of your nerves.

“Well, I think you’ll be a great fit in our team. Everyone else is probably here already so I’ll introduce you before we go to the briefing room”.

He opens the door for you, and you head downstairs into the bullpen.

“Everyone, this is SSA Y/N Y/L/N. She’s the new transfer from the New York office and will be joining our team effective immediately.”

Hotch then introduced every member of the team, Emily, Jennifer, Derek, David, and the tech analyst you had already met.

“Spencer seems to be running late, so you’ll meet him afterwards. Right now, lets all get to the briefing room, we have a case”.

As if on cue, a fluffy haired man, who you recognized from the subway, walked through the glass doors.

“Ah, here he is” – Hotch exclaimed – “Y/L/N, this is Doctor Spencer Reid. Reid, this is Y/N, our newest team member”.

He shook your hand, a gesture that seemed to surprise the rest of the team, for some reason. 

“Well, uh, now that introductions are out of the way, everyone to the roundtable”.

You followed everyone into a big room with several screens and whiteboards. Garcia stood, grabbing a remote and directing your attention towards the TV.

-

“So, let me get this straight” Morgan said, “this dude murdered a couple in one of the messiest ways I think I’ve ever seen, broke most if not all their furniture, left the dog barking, and none of the neighbors heard a thing?”.

“Have the police interviewed every neighbor?” you asked

“They haven’t interviewed anyone yet, said they’re waiting for us. But still, no noise or disturbance was reported, which is unusual. Morgan, I want you and Prentiss on the scene. David, you come with me to the precinct. JJ can interview the family, and Y/N can go with Reid to see what the neighbors know.

You smiled at Spencer, excited for your first time in the field since joining the FBI.

He, however, looked more nervous than excited. 

“We land in 20 minutes, so take this time to read over the files and prepare for this case. Judging by the unsubs cooling off period, it’s going to be a long one.”


	3. fluorescent adolescent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> clinging to not getting sentimental, said she wasn't going but she went still

The McKerveys had three neighbors surrounding them, of which you had interviewed two already. They both had pretty much the same story. Heard the dog barking a few times, didn’t think anything of it, went back to bed. 

“Is it really possible that none of these people heard a thing?”

“What the human brain registers varies wildly between sleep phases. While we might recognize sound in light sleep, once we enter a dream state our brain ignores almost everything, and sometimes even forgets what it heard previously” Reid explains.

“Huh, that’s cool. Didn’t know that” you say, going through your notes. 

Reid gives you a surprised look. 

“What? Not all of us have encyclopedic knowledge on sleeping patterns”.

“N-no, it's not that. Just most people just wouldn't describe my ‘encyclopedic knowledge’ as cool.”

“Well, I’ve been hearing the same exact story for the past two hours, so pretty much anything would seem interesting now”.

He smiles and looks at the ground.

“So what you're saying is they probably did hear it, but not enough to wake them up”.

“Yeah, except they did say they hear the dog”.

“Or maybe, they heard everything, but only remember hearing the dog. Who would find a dog bark more alarming than a house invasion?” you look up at Spencer, expecting him to have an answer.

“If I didn’t know any better I would say it’s because they were used to one of the noises, and it wasn’t the dog.” 

You each look at eachother confused, then back at your notes. 

“Well, we still have one house left. But I swear, if they say the same thing as the other neighbors, I’m moving back to New York.”

“Let’s hope they tell a different story then.” 

You smile at him before knocking on the door

-

Dawn Hanson was a 25 year old medical intern who had just moved in two months ago.

“I woke up at around 1:30, I think. I remember hearing something break in the McKerveys house, sounded like glass. A few moments later I heard a man yell. He sounded frustrated, and then a woman responded.”

“Did she sound angry, sad...?” you asked.

“Afraid, definitely afraid. That’s actually what made me call the police, I wanted to make sure that she was okay.”

“Did you say you called the police?” Spencer said, apparently as dumbfounded as you were.

“Yeah, they told me they would look into it. I didn’t hear any more noise except for a car driving away 15 minutes later. At the time I assumed it was the police, but I guess I was wrong. I went to bed right after that.”

“Did you hear the dog bark at any time?”

“I did, actually. Right before the car left.”

“One last question Dawn” Spencer said, leaning in “you described the car as a black Ford. Why did you think that was the police if it was unmarked?”

“Oliver McKervey owned the bar where all the policemen would go, so they were all friends. I just assumed one of them took their personal car to check up on him.” 

You and Spencer looked at eachother, both thinking the same thing.

“Thank you Dawn. We might call you if we have more questions, but I think that’ll be all.”

-

By the time you and Reid got to the precinct everybody else was already there. You walked up to Hotch and told him what you had learned. 

“Two of the three surrounding houses only heard the dog barking, none of the struggle, said it was as normal a night as any.”

“And the third?”

“About that, Reid and I have a theory, but I think it might be best to tell it to the team in a separate room, away from the local police.”

Hotch looked at you inquisitively, but agreed and rounded up the rest of the team. 

“So we talked to Dawn, and she said she heard a man and a woman, furniture breaking, and at the end the dog barking. She called the police, but they never showed. She did however hear a car pull out of the driveway, which she assumed was police.”

“Why did the police never show?”

“Well, Morgan, it appears that the bar our vic here owned is the local cop hotspot”

“And this is all based on the next door neighbor’s testimony?”

“It is, sir, but Garcia has already confirmed all of it” you responded.

“Yes” Garcia chimed in from the computer screen “and not only that, but I've found 3 other instances of domestic disturbance calls that were made but never put on file.”

“Based on this information and Mr. McKervey’s general profile, it’s likely there was domestic abuse happening in that household.” Reid explained, and looked at you to continue.

“Yeah, and if that’s true, we think the unsub may be a family annihilator of some kind. He was looking to get rid of Oliver, who he saw as ‘unworthy’ or ‘unfit’, but Mary put up a fight, so when he saw the situation getting out of control, he killed her as well.”

“It’s just a theory at the moment, but it’s good enough to work off of. I think it goes unsaid that we don’t share this with the local PD just yet. Other than that, good work everyone.” 

With that Hotch left the room, and the rest of the team followed.

“You guys make a good team” Emily said “wouldn’t be surprised if Hotch pairs you up more often”

“I know pretty boy here wouldn’t mind” Morgan joked while turning to look at you “he needs all the help he can get”.

“Shut up” Reid responded, before walking quickly out of the room.

-

From there the case didn’t take long at all. Garcia pulled up 911 call records of adjoining precincts and found two other domestic abuse cases that were being covered up. Turns out the unsub was a former police officer who had been fired after trying to report the misconduct.

He was eventually shot down in his house.

You didn’t expect your first case to affect you as much as it had, especially when the unsub hadn’t killed any more people. But you were still left feeling disoriented, not really satisfied with your “job well done”.

“Are all cases like this?” you asked Hotch, who was driving beside you. “I mean, Shawn was trying to do a good thing and not only was he punished, but he died for it while the cops responsible for it will probably get a promotion next week.”

Hotch sat in silence for a few seconds, you almost thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“Our job is preventing deaths. We do that by analyzing situations and behavior. We can’t start judging what is right and what is wrong, that’s not our job.”

You look down at your hands, picking at your cuticles.

“That being said, empathizing with the unsub is an essential part of that job. You did well, especially for your first day. The outcome should have been different, but that was out of your hands. You did your job.”

“I guess. Thanks.” you sighed and stared out the car window. You always loved driving at night, looking at the quiet landscape that surrounded you. Everything was so still at nightime. No one expects anything from you once the sun goes down. 

You could drive for hours only to feel that for as long as possible. 

-

You and Hotch were the last ones to get to the hotel, all the other SUVs were parked outside like some kind of fed barricade.

You walked in to see Spencer sitting on a couch in the lobby, reading.

“What are you doing here?”

Spencer looked up at you, half startled and half exhausted.

“We don’t have enough rooms for everyone, so we have to double up. Emily is with JJ, Morgan and Garcia are together. Both Hotch and Rossi have their own, so that leaves us.”

“Okay” you said, both of you walking towards the elevator, “but why didn’t you wait in the room?”

“You seemed tired after the case, didn’t want to startle you.” he explained, while looking straight ahead.

“Oh, thank you”

Your worries about the case seemed to fade away as the elevator doors opened, and that silly feeling from the subway came back.

-

Spencer brushed his teeth in the bathroom. Taking advantage of that you went to his nightstand and flipped through the book he was reading downstairs.

“You can keep it if you want” he said, making you drop the book. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you”.

“No it’s fine” you bent down to pick up the copy of History of a Stairway. “I didn't know you liked spanish literature”

“Haven’t read a lot of it, but it’s my third time going through that one.”

“Well, I think I might just take you up on your offer. It was my grandfather's favorite book, I’ve always wanted to read it”

“Go for it”

You looked at eachother, creating a silence that was surprisingly comfortable. That is, until Reid got nervous and cleared his throat

“I’m going to bed. Goodnight Y/N”

“Goodnight Spencer”


End file.
